1JOB REPLIED: 2»How long will you torment me and depress me with words? 3»You have insulted me ten times now. You are not even ashamed of hurting me. 4»Even if it were true that I made a mistake without realizing it, my mistake would affect only me. 5»If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me by using my disgrace as an argument against me, 6then I want you to know that God has wronged me and surrounded me with his net. 7»Yes I cry for Help! I am being attacked! But I get no response. I call for help, but there is no justice. 8»God has blocked my path so that I cannot go on. He has made my path dark. 9»He stripped me of my honor. He took the crown off my head. 10»He beats me down on every side until I am gone. He uproots my hope like a tree. 11»He is very angry with me. He considers me his enemy. 12»His troops assemble against me. They build a ramp to attack me. They camp around my tent. 13»My brothers stay far away from me. My friends are complete strangers to me. 14»My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming. My houseguests have forgotten me. 15»My female slaves consider me to be a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them. 16»I call my slave, but he does not answer, even when I beg him. 17»I am repulsive to my wife and my children think I stink. 18»Even young children despise me. If I stand up, they make fun of me. 19»All my closest friends are disgusted with me. Those I love have turned against me. 20»My bones cling to my skin. I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth with almost nothing. 21»Have pity on me, my friends! Have pity on me because God's hand has struck me down. 22»Why do you pursue me as God does? Why are you never satisfied with my flesh? 23»I wish now my words were written. I wish they were inscribed on a scroll. 24»I wish they were engraved forever on a rock with an iron stylus and lead. 25»I know that my redeemer lives, and in later days he will take his stand on the earth. 26»Even after my skin is gone and this body destroyed, I will see God in my own flesh. 27»I will see him with my own eyes, not with someone else's. My heart fails inside me! 28»You say: ‘We will persecute him!’ The root of the problem is found in him. 29»Fear the sword and death, because your anger is punishable by the sword. Then you will know there is a judge.«